Perry Work Report: work&labour news&research, October 2, 2015

October 2, 2015

Announcements:

From PWR Co-Editor to PhD Student

Melissa Wawrzkiewicz has been accepted into the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources PhD program and is beginning her studies this fall. She was an exceptional candidate for the PhD program having an honours degree in economics and having attained her Masters of Information Science in 2014 while she worked as a library assistant for the CIRHR Library. Melissa has made a significant contribution to the quality of the Perry Work Report as the co-editor for the last three years and as the designer of the blog work&labour new&research. She is both knowledgeable and passionate when it comes to IR/HR issues and luckily for the CIRHR Library she will continue being our co-editor for one more year. Congratulations Melissa!

Bora Laskin Award Winner

“2015 Bora Laskin Award winner has been announced. Allen Ponak has been awarded the Bora Laskin Award for 2015. Dr. Ponak will be presented with the Bora Laskin Award at a special dinner event on Tuesday, October 27, 2015 at the Fairmont Palliser in Calgary, Alberta.  Details and ticket information can be found on the Lancaster House web site.”

Inaugural Morley Gunderson Lecture in Labour Economics and Industrial Relations

Woodsworth College is pleased to be a co-sponsor along with the Centre for Industrial Relations & Human Resources and the Department of Economics the Inaugural Morley Gunderson Lecture in Labour Economic and Industrial Relations.
Speaker: Edward Lazear, Professor, Jack Steele Parker Professor of Human Resources Management and Economics, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business
Topic: Personnel Economics: Using Economic Theory and Econometrics to Understand Human Resources Issues
To register: E-mail
Date and Time: November 6, 2015, 4--5:30pm
Location: Kruger Hall Commons, Woodsworth College, 119 St. George St.

Follow us on the CIRHR Library Tumblr and on the CIRHR Library Twitter.

The Cost of Physicians in Canada

“An annual snapshot of the country’s physician work force released Tuesday [September 29, 2015] shows the higher payments were driven by two factors: more doctors and higher payout levels. Canada had a record number of doctors -- almost 80,000 -- in 2014. Their average earnings before expenses hit $336,000, a 2.4-per-cent increase from the previous year.”

“These latest figures, compiled by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), mean the spending slowdown experienced in 2013 is looking like a blip, rather than the beginning of a trend caused by provincial efforts to rein in spending.”

“Given that Canada has a growing and aging population, it stands to reason that costs and the number of doctors are going up, some argue, but others say the data point to larger issues in the way the country has chosen to pay for health care.“

“Later this week, Ontario will impose the second across-the-board cut to doctors’ fees this year. The CIHI report shows that as of 18 months ago, the country’s most populous province had the highest average physician payout at $368,000, although that figure fell slightly for the second year in a row.“

The Globe and Mail, September 29, 2015: “Spending on Canadian doctors’ pay jumps despite efforts to curb costs,” by Elizabeth Church

Canadian Institute for Health Information, September 2015: “Physicians in Canada, 2014: Summary Report” (PDF, 16 pages)

Canadian Institute for Health Information, September 2015: “Infographic: More doctors ... more money“

Canadian Institute for Health Information [website]

"Ontario doctors are ramping up their months-long battle with the province over pay, publicly voicing their anger over fee cuts that take effect this week and raising the threat of reduced access to care -- a move Health Minister Eric Hoskins says amounts to ‘fear mongering.’“

The Globe and Mail, September 27, 2015: “Ontario doctors go on the offensive in wage dispute” by Elizabeth Church

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Minimum Wage Rates in Canada: 1965-2015

“The recent increase in minimum wages across Canada is likely due in part to the creation of poverty reduction strategies, which have focused attention on minimum wages. Starting in Quebec and then Newfoundland and Labrador, poverty reduction strategies -- comprehensive and far-reaching plans to reduce, prevent and eliminate poverty -- have been launched by all provinces and territories except British Columbia.  While the minimum wage is only one tool among many required to build an effective poverty reduction strategy, it is crucial to the task.”

“Most jurisdictions do not protect the value of their minimum wages by indexing them to a social indicator such as the change in the cost of living or average earnings. Currently only five jurisdictions index their minimum wage rates -- Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Yukon.”

Caledon Institute of Social Policy, September 2015: “Minimum Wage Rates in Canada: 1965-2015,” by Ken Battle 

Caledon Institute of Social Policy, September 2015: “Canada Social Report Minimum Wage Rates in Canada: 1965-2015,” by Ken Battle (30 pages, PDF)

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Minimum Wage Rises in Five Provinces

“Thousands of workers in five provinces across Canada get a raise on Thursday [October 1, 2015].” On this day the minimum wage increases in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

“Alberta workers will see the biggest jump, with an additional $1 an hour, as the rate increases from $10.20 to $11.20.”

“Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador are both increasing their minimum hourly wages by 25 cents ..., bringing Ontario's rate up to $11.25 and Newfoundland and Labrador's up to $10.50. 

CBC News, October 1, 2015: “Minimum wage rises in 5 provinces today”

What a $15 Minimum Wage Would Mean for Your City

“As the campaign for a $15 minimum wage has gained strength this year, even supporters of large minimum-wage increases have wondered how high the wage floor can rise before it reduces employment and hurts the economy.”

“Fortunately, economists have a handy tool for gauging the likely impact of minimum-wage increases: the ratio of the minimum wage to the wage of workers in the very middle of the income distribution, known as the median wage. The higher the ratio of the minimum to the median, the greater the boost to workers.”

“But the higher that ratio, the greater risk of job losses, too. Where is the point at which job loss risk exceeds the benefit to workers? There is some evidence that cities and states have managed to absorb increases when the minimum wage is in the neighborhood of 50 percent of the median, even a bit higher. But economists have very few historical examples of increases that go beyond 60 percent. And even some economists who are at ease with moderate increases in the minimum wage worry that a minimum wage in that 60 percent range or higher could produce significant job losses.”

“If the minimum hourly wage were $15 in every city by 2020, some local economies would have a harder time adjusting to it than others. In cities where median wages are relatively low, many economists say that such an increase could result in significant job losses.”

The New York Times, August 12, 2015: “What a $15 Minimum Wage Would Mean for Your City,” by Noam Scheiber

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Canadian Firms Reject Gender Diversity Policies

“Just 14 per cent of companies on the Toronto Stock Exchange have adopted a formal policy for improving the proportion of women on their boards in line with recommendations introduced this year by securities regulators, while the vast majority have rejected gender diversity policies.”

“A review of the first year of compliance with the new diversity guidelines, which took effect Dec. 31, shows many of the provisions championed by regulators found little support in Canada’s business community....”

“The new rules require listed companies to disclose how many women they have on their boards and in executive roles, and recommends they adopt policies to improve their gender diversity and consider women in the hiring process. Under the so-called comply-or-explain standard, companies do not have to comply and can instead explain why they have chosen not to adopt the policies.”

“The review of 722 TSX-listed companies that reported under the new rule as of July 31 found just 14 per cent said they have adopted a written diversity policy.... Just 7 per cent of the companies said they have set a target for women on their boards, and 39 per cent of those with targets had already met them. Only 2 per cent said they have targets for women in senior executive roles.”

The Globe and Mail, September 28, 2015: “Vast majority of Canadian firms reject gender diversity policies,” by Janet McFarland

Canadian Securities Administrators, September 28, 2015: “Staff Review of Women on Boards and in Executive Officer Positions -- Compliance with NI 58-101 Disclosure of Corporate Governance Practices” (17 pages, PDF)

Why companies continue to reject gender board diversity is baffling. Evidence has shown time and time again that board diversity is positively linked to a company’s performance. 

Most recently, “[t]he report, Women in business: the value of diversity, examined the financial performance of companies listed in India, the UK and the USA. It found that those with at least one woman on their executive board outperformed those with male-only boards in each of the three markets studied.”

economia, September 29, 2015: “Diverse boards do better”

Grant Thornton, September 2015: “Women in business: the value of diversity,” by Francesca Lagerberg (4 pages, PDF)

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Everyone Deserves a Harassment-Free Workplace

Maya Cole, “who identifies as transgender, began her job as an administrative worker at Pelmo Park Public School in the Jane and Highway 401 area in late August. But just two days into the school year, Cole experienced harassment from a parent at the school.”

While working in the front office Cole offered assistance to a parent who “thrust his hand in front of her face and said he did not want to ‘speak with that man, that f****t.’ The supervisor escorted the parent out of the office and then asked him to leave the school. Cole says that as he was being led out, the parent began yelling in the hallway that she was ‘not a person.’”

“‘I was afraid for my physical safety,’ Cole says.”

“The incident comes at a time when the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) is calling for amendments to the Employment Standards Act and the Occupational Health And Safety Act to protect board employees from violence in the workplace, including psychological harassment.”

“After Cole tweeted about the incident, CUPE Ontario responded: ‘Abuse and harassment have no place in our schools, workplaces or communities.’ CUPE 4400 recording corresponding secretary Katie McGovern wrote in an email to NOW that the union ‘has a strong policy on working with and supporting our trans members.’"

“Cole, who has faced the threat of violence on the streets as a transwoman, says, ‘I shouldn’t have to fear for my safety in the workplace, too.’”

NOW Toronto, September 28, 2015: “’I Shouldn’t Have to Fear For My Safety in the Workplace,” by Erica Lenti

Government of Canada, August 21, 2015: “Prevention and resolution of harassment”

Canada’s Healthy Workplace Month & Mindfulness in the Workplace

“Canada’s Healthy Workplace Month kicks off on October 1st and Dr. Geoffrey Soloway says organizations should be looking to mindfulness to help improve the health, wellbeing and performance of employees"

“’With more than 500,000 Canadians missing work each day because of mental health problems, costing businesses $6 billion a year, it’s no wonder organizations are looking for proven ways to better support their people,’ said Soloway.”

“While mindfulness is an ancient wisdom tradition, today it is an evidence-based training used in government, healthcare, business, education and military settings to decrease stress, anxiety and depression and increase performance, focus, memory and creativity.”

CNW, September 28, 2015: “Getting ‘mindful’ one of the best ways for workplaces to stay healthy according to expert”

MindWell Canada [website]

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Trans-Pacific Partnership Would Threaten Over 26,000 Canadian Jobs

“Ontario Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal and Ontario Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid have written a new letter to Canadian Trade Minister Ed Fast saying they remain worried about the impact on autos and dairy farmers.”

“‘Despite your commitment in our meeting to protect the integrity of supply management ... our government remains extremely concerned at recent reports from international trade experts, and comments by the Prime Minister, which suggest that the government of Canada is prepared to jeopardize the economic well-being of critical sectors of the economy, in particular Ontario’s agricultural and automotive sectors, in order to finalize a deal,’ the ministers write. Auto manufacturing is a linchpin of the Ontario economy and the province is home to a significant number of dairy farmers.”

“An agreement will almost certainly expose the Canadian auto-parts sector, which employs 80,000 people, to far more foreign competition and erode the preferential position the industry enjoys under NAFTA.”

The Globe and Mail, October 1, 2015: Ontario raises concern that TPP would hurt auto, dairy industries,” by Steven Chase

“A massive Pacific Rim trade agreement ... would threaten more than 26,000 Canadian auto jobs, the country’s largest private-sector union is warning.”

“The proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership deal would unite 12 countries from Chile to Japan into a single free-trade zone and eclipse the North American free-trade agreement in importance.”

“There’s growing concern over measures in the TPP that would lower domestic content rules for vehicles and car parts, overriding rules in the NAFTA that have protected Canadian auto jobs for decades.”

“Unifor economist Jim Stanford estimates this could threaten as many as 26,400 Canadian auto jobs in both assembling and parts-making. ‘Watering down the content thresholds amounts to opening a huge back door to our market for products made in China and other non-TPP countries,’ Jerry Dias, Unifor president, said. ‘That is a direct threat to thousands of good Canadian manufacturing jobs -- exactly the kinds of jobs we need more of.’”

“The union leader also called for measures to ensure reciprocal trade in finished vehicles. Under the North American free-trade agreement, Canada, the U.S. and Mexico require more than 60 per cent of cars and auto parts to be made within the NAFTA zone in order to enter their markets tariff-free.”

“The Japan-U.S. formula says that in the TPP zone vehicles would be tariff-free even if only 45 per cent of their content is made within the TPP zone, and auto parts with as little as 30 per cent.”

The Globe and Mail, September 21, 2015: “Pacific Rim trade agreement would threaten over 26,000 Canadian jobs, Unifor warns,” by Steven Chase and Greg Keenan

CBC News, September 29, 2015: “Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal could be closed this week”

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Stealin' All My Dreams

“Compelled to add their voice to the chorus of voices protesting Prime Minister Harper’s Conservative government, Blue Rodeo has written the modern day protest song ‘Stealin’ All My Dreams.’”

“Recorded and filmed on September 9, 2015, the song and video chronicle the failings of the current government and asks the question, ‘Have you forgotten that you work for me?’”

“The video shows the band playing Stealing All My Dreams while large lettering in the foreground details the Harper government record on things like the environment, election fraud, muzzling scientists and the refusal to launch an inquiry into missing First Nations women.” [Charles Mandel]

“Blue Rodeo does not always speak with one voice. However we feel collectively that the current administration in Canada has taken us down the wrong path. We do not seem to be the compassionate and environmentally conscious nation we once were. As respectful as we are of the variety of opinions held by our audience, we felt it was time to speak up and add our voice to the conversation.” - Jim Cuddy

Stealin’ All My Dreams, September 28, 2015:  “A Modern Day Protest Song and Video: ‘I didn’t want to talk about it, so I wrote a song about it,’” by Greg Keelor (scroll down to the Stealing all my Dreams Facts list)

The National Observer, September 28, 2015: “Blue Rodeo releases song slamming Stephen Harper [VIDEO],” by Charles Mandel

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Rise of the Teaching Class

“Many Canadian universities are seeing a sharp increase in the number of professors hired to primarily teach rather than research, reports Simona Chiose. While that may be good news for students, the change could threaten the mission of universities.”

“More than 40 Canadian universities provided The Globe and Mail with data on their faculty ranks. In spite of differences among universities, what becomes clear is that teaching-focused positions have seen consistent and sharp increases at many of the country’s most prominent postsecondary institutions, and the model is growing at smaller schools as well. Unlike research-focused faculty, teaching instructors lack the iron-clad job guarantees and academic freedom that come with tenure, as well as the ability to progress through to the highest levels of academia.”

Keeping Up with Enrolment

“To many institutions, teaching-focused appointments can reconcile seemingly incompatible goals: improving learning quality, containing tenured faculty salaries and advancing research”

“For more than a decade, universities have struggled to do all three. Student enrolment across the country has grown 40 per cent since the turn of the millennium, and in that time, students have also sharply increased their contribution to university coffers to make up for declining government funds.”

“That rise in enrolment has not been matched among faculty: Between 2000 and 2011 -- the last year Statistics Canada kept track -- the number of full-time tenured professors increased about 30 per cent.” 

“Since 2006, teaching appointments have increased by more than 40 per cent at UBC, compared to a 12 per cent rise in tenure-track hires.’”

“At the same time, hiring teachers first and researchers second has distinct benefits for universities. The former are cheaper, for one: UBC’s faculty association has argued that teaching professors can have so many classes that they end up being paid less than contract instructors who are paid by the course. And their work allows established and recognized researchers to devote even more of their time to that part of the job.”

“Dwindling tenure-track academic jobs are raising questions about what Canada is going to do with all of its PhDs.”

“Japan is the most often cited cautionary tale. There, after overreaching in its push to produce doctoral graduates, the government had to set up a $5-million fund for business to hire unemployed PhDs.”

The Globe and Mail, September 30, 2015: “Rise of the Teaching Class,” by Simona Chiose 

Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars, November 2014: “The 2013 Canadian Postdoc Survey: Painting a Picture of Canadian Postdoctoral Scholars” Full report: (61 pages, PDF) or Executive Summary (9 pages, PDF)

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Annual College Rankings

“Each fall, education reporters nationwide prepare for the release of U.S. News & World Report’s newest college rankings. While other organizations have started developing their own systems for ranking American colleges and universities, the U.S. News reports generally are the most widely recognized -- and anticipated.”

“As reporters plan their coverage of U.S. News’ latest rankings -- or coverage of any college ranking system -- they should keep in mind that people want to know what the new report says but also what it means. For example, if a local university did not make the Top 100, does that mean it’s not good? If a school is named among the Top 25, will its graduates get better jobs? How much weight should students give this information as they debate where to send their applications? Should parents listen to critics who say college rankings should be ignored? Do university leaders think their campuses were adequately assessed? Answering these sorts of questions is critical when writing about this popular topic.” 

“Journalists who want help explaining the evolution of this trend, its benefits and consequences should look to academic researchers as key sources. Insights gained by scholars, who continue to study this topic, can add considerable depth and context to a reporter’s work.” 

Shorenstein Centre on Media Politics and Public Policy, September 1, 2015: “Covering annual college rankings: Reporting tips,” by Denise-Marie Ordway

Some studies to consider:

Research in Higher Education, December 2014: “Modeling Change and Variation in U.S. News & World Report College Rankings: What Would It Really Take to be in the Top 20?,” by Shari L. Gnolek, Vincenzo T. Falciano, and Ralph W. Kuncl

Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 2014: “True for Your School? How Changing Reputations Alter Demand for Selective U.S. Colleges,” by Molly Alter and Randall Reback

Critical Studies in Education, 2015: “Control by Numbers: New Managerialism and Ranking in Higher Education,” by Kathleen Lynch

Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics, 2014: “Framing the University Ranking Game: Actors, Motivations, and Actions,” by James A. Dearden, Rajdeep Grewal, Gary L. Lilien

Journal of Higher Education, July/August 2013: “University Rankings in Critical Perspective,” by Brian Pusser and Simon Marginson

American Statistician, 2008: “The University Rankings Game,” by Rajdeep Grewal, James A. Dearden, and Gary L. Lilien.”

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World University Rankings 2015-2016

“The world dominance of universities in the US has further waned in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2015-2016, despite the fact that the country boasts almost a fifth of institutions in the table.”

“A total of 147 US universities feature in the top 800 -- the largest THE rankings to date -- including the California Institute of Technology, which claims pole position for the fifth consecutive year.”

Phil Baty, THE rankings editor, said that the US’ movement is to some degree owing to significant improvements to the rankings’ data sources this year, with “improved coverage of research not published in English and a better geographical spread of responses to our academic reputation survey.”

However, he added that it also demonstrates that the US’ leading status as the world’s top magnet for academic and student talent “cannot be taken for granted”, citing figures that show that 47 states in the US have implemented higher education funding cuts since the global recession in 2008.

Times Higher Education, September 30, 2015: “World University Rankings 2015-2016: results announced: US continues to lose its grip as institutions in Europe up their game”

“Earlier this year, Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, signed a new state budget cutting $250 million (£161 million) from Wisconsin’s education system and removing from state law tenure protection for professors at the institutions.”

“The California State University system’s budget also fell by $900 million, or 27 per cent, between 2008 and 2012. Funding for the state’s public institutions has increased since then, but Professor Altbach said that the universities are still vulnerable.”

“Speaking in an interview with Times Higher Education, he said: ‘In some ways the US, in the last few years, has been engaged in what I call an un-excellence initiative in our public higher education system.’”

“The US system is quite stable and it takes a long time to significantly damage a university that has been built up and has been quite successful over a century. But we’re doing our best to make them not as good as they once were.”

Times Higher Education, September 23, 2015: “US ‘un-excellence’ initiative will harm institutions, says scholar,” by Ellie Bothwell

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The Neoliberal Arts: How College Sold its Soul to the Market

“The worst thing about ‘leadership,’ the notion that society should be run by highly trained elites, is that it has usurped the place of ‘citizenship,’ the notion that society should be run by everyone together. Not coincidentally, citizenship -- the creation of an informed populace for the sake of maintaining a free society, a self-governing society -- was long the guiding principle of education in the United States. To escape from neoliberal education, we must escape from neoliberalism. If that sounds impossible, bear in mind that neoliberalism itself would have sounded impossible as recently as the 1970s. As late as 1976, the prospect of a Reagan presidency was played for laughs on network television.”

“Instead of treating higher education as a commodity, we need to treat it as a right. Instead of seeing it in terms of market purposes, we need to see it once again in terms of intellectual and moral purposes. That means resurrecting one of the great achievements of postwar American society: high-quality, low- or no-cost mass public higher education. An end to the artificial scarcity of educational resources. An end to the idea that students must compete for the privilege of going to a decent college, and that they then must pay for it.”

“Young people, it turns out, are not helpless in the face of the market, especially not if they act together. Nor are they necessarily content to accept the place that neoliberalism has assigned them. We appear to have entered a renewed era of student activism, driven, as genuine political engagement always is, not by upper-class 'concern' but by felt, concrete needs: for economic opportunity, for racial justice, for a habitable future. Educational institutions -- reactive, defensive, often all but rudderless -- are not offering much assistance with this project, and I don’t believe that students have much hope that they will. The real sense of helplessness, it seems, belongs to colleges and universities themselves.

Extract from Harper’s Magazine, September 2015: “The Neoliberal Arts: How college sold its soul to the market,” by William Deresiewicz (complete text for subscribers only)

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Gender in Academic Recruitment and Promotion Processes

“It is well known that women are under-represented in senior science and research positions. Although stories of sexism in science often focus on explicit bias, more-subtle factors are widely influential too.”

“Universities like to think of themselves as meritocracies. Indeed, one of the arguments used against programmes that aim to proactively promote the careers of women scientists is that scientists must be recruited on talent alone.”

“I carried out an analysis that raises some troubling questions about how closely universities follow these principles. In the decade to 2013, about one-fifth of associate- and full-professor positions at Aarhus University, one of the largest in Denmark, were filled through a ‘closed’ recruitment procedure: no advertisement and usually just a single applicant.”

“The share of female candidates for such positions is particularly low -- just 12% ... With ‘open’ recruitment, the proportion of female applicants for full-professor roles rises to 23%. But a significant proportion still attracted only a single applicant....“

“Academic advancement through back-door hiring largely depends on reputation and visibility to the local gatekeepers, and women lose out under such procedures for two reasons.”

“First, women have been shown to have weaker personal ties to the core of the concentric circles of academic networks, making them less visible to decision-makers. Second, scholars have argued that male decision-makers’ desire for organizational certainty and their attraction to candidates with whom they share values and behaviour, create subtle and often unconscious practices of ‘male closeness’ and ‘gender homophily’ (preference for someone similar to oneself).”

nature, September 23, 2015: “Make academic job advertisements fair to all,” by Mathias Wullum Nielsen

Science and Public Policy, August 28, 2015: “Limits to meritocracy? Gender in academic recruitment and promotion processes,” by Mathias W. Nielsen

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Surviving in Silicon Valley

So, you’ve landed a job at a tech company in the “thriving” Bay Area (see reports below) and are moving to San Francisco. 

In an open letter The Bold Italic’s Dan Moore explains what you really need to know about this rapidly changing landscape.

“... [F]rom the day you get here, you’ll find yourself in the middle of this divide, caught in anxious, awkward suspension between two worlds: one that’s losing control of its identity and one that hasn’t really figured out what its identity is yet.”

“See, the world that hasn’t figured out its identity yet is probably better known as the tech community. This community consists of people whose move to San Francisco was made possible by way of companies related at least peripherally to the technology industry. Yes, this means you. What this also means is that many of your neighbors won’t see you as a benevolent outsider caught unknowingly in the middle of what is, essentially, a class war. You have, by association, already chosen your side. And the association will be your shame.”

People are right to be angry. “Since 2010, rents have risen by 40%, and eviction rates have risen by 38% -- two rapid changes that have had very visual consequences all across the city. Much of SoMa, for instance, looks like an elephant graveyard. Sidewalks look like the surface of the moon; alleys are littered with broken glass; and streets are strewn with sleeping persons and human shit. All of this can be observed from in the shade of the brand-new office buildings and luxury condos that now line the streets everywhere east of 4th Street. Walking among this baffling contradiction of circumstance and wealth -- along with being blamed for what it represents -- will almost certainly have an impact on you.”

“If you arrive in San Francisco sympathetic to the sensitivity of its circumstances ... you’ll be better positioned to become part of a larger solution here, as opposed to contributing to any preexisting badness.”

The Bold Italic, September 21, 2015: “An Open Letter to Anyone Moving to San Francisco for a Tech Job," by Dan Moore

“The Bay Area’s ‘innovation economy’ -- i.e., the high-tech sector -- is thriving. Though longtime observers are right to wonder when the next crash will happen, the region’s current boom has some fundamental qualities -- such as profitable companies and growing venture capital funding -- that hint a bust is not imminent. Two recent reports, the 2015 Silicon Valley Competitiveness and Innovation Project from the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and Joint Venture: Silicon Valley’s2015 Silicon Valley Index, highlight key strengths and several challenges facing the region.”

SPUR Blog, March 2015: “Prosperity and Opportunity in the Bay Area’s Innovation Economy,” by Egon Terplan and Kathryn Mullins

Silicon Valley Leadership Group & Silicon Valley Community Foundation, July 2015: “Silicon Valley Competitiveness and Innovation Project - 2015" (54 pages, PDF) Visit the project website here.

Joint Venture, Silicon Valley Institute for Regional Studies, February 2015: “2015 Silicon Valley Index” (88 pages, PDF)

Joint Venture, Silicon Valley Institute for Regional Studies, June 2015: “Research Brief: Income Inequality in the San Francisco Bay Area” (50 pages, PDF

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Sunlight on Tax Havens

“The entire point of [tax havens’] existence is to conceal the wealth hidden within them. And a new book by Gabriel Zucman, The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens, reveals, as never before, the extent of their role in the global economy.”

“If rich countries in Europe and North American cannot effectively tax the rich, they have little chance of preserving social democracy and offsetting the surge in inequality that has recently afflicted their economies. Similarly, emerging economies have little hope of putting in place progressive tax systems if they cannot find their plutocrats’ wealth.”

“Tax havens can be eliminated; all that is required is to close the loopholes that allow legal tax avoidance and establish enforcement mechanisms that make illegal tax evasion no longer worth the risk. The first step should be increased transparency. The second step would be to shift the corporate tax base from profits reported to have been earned in a country to sales made and wages paid in that country.”

“If we are ever to combat inequality effectively, truly progressive taxation will have to be a part of the policy mix. But unless we eliminate tax havens now, we are likely to find that we lack the ability to implement it.”

Project Syndicate, September 28, 2015: “Sunlight on Tax Havens,” by J. Bradford Delong and Michael M. Delong

While hiding away your money in off-shore banks isn’t the solution, recent research has shown that visible wealth in a society is more harmful than the presence of inequality itself. “Visibility had a negative effect on cooperation, interconnectedness, and total wealth in societies with both high and low levels of inequality.”

“The [research] team also found a change in the behavior of the rich when wealth was visible. Under that scenario, the poor continued to invest in their neighbors, but the rich did not, which exacerbated inequality. In effect, the visibility of wealth reinforced whatever inequality already existed and made it worse, says [Nicholas Christakis, one of the study’s authors].”

“The results suggest that knowing others’ wealth levels sparks psychological processes like social comparison, which drive competition and a ‘fear being last place,’ the authors write. While hard to translate into the real world, the results, Christakis argues, could be used to support certain workplace policies, like whether or not to disclose pay rates across companies with high pay inequality.”

Quartz, September 14, 2015: “Visible wealth has a dramatic effect on economic inequality,” by Frida Garza

Nature, September 9, 2015: “Inequality and visibility of wealth in experimental social networks,” by Akihiro Nishi, Hirokazu Shirado, David G. Rand, and Nicholas A. Christakis

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Book of the Week

Do What You Love: And Other Lies About Success and Happiness, by Miya Tokumitsu. New York: Regan Arts, 2015. 188 p. ISBN 9781941393475 (hardcover)

From the publisher: "Fantastically successful -- and popular -- entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs and Oprah Winfrey command us. ‘You’ve got to love what you do,’ Jobs tells an audience of college grads about to enter the workforce, while Winfrey exhorts her audience to ‘live your best life.’ The promises made to today’s workers seem so much larger and nobler than those of previous generations. Why settle for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage and a perfectly functional eight-year-old car when you can get rich becoming your ‘best’ self and have a blast along the way? But workers today are doing more and more for less and less. This reality is frighteningly palpable in eroding paychecks and benefits, the rapid concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny few, and workers’ loss of control over their labor conditions. But where is the protest and anger from workers against a system that tells them to love their work and asks them to do it for less? While winner-take-all capitalism grows ever more ruthless, the rhetoric of passion for labor proliferates. In Do What You Love, Tokumitsu articulates and examines the sacrifices people make for a chance at loveable, self-actualizing, and, of course, wealth-generating work and the conditions facilitated by this pursuit. This book continues the conversation sparked by the author’s earlier Slate article and provides a devastating look at the state of modern America’s labor and workforce.”

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